Book Review - Communicating Design by Dan Brown
– posted January 8th, 2009 by Colin Bentley Comments (5)
Every new analyst joining iQ is given a tailored reading list to develop their industry theoretical knowledge and skillset. As part of this process, I’ll be blogging reviews of some of the books that I read. I hope you find it useful!
My Mum is addicted to recipe books, She has so many that they regularly tumble out of the over-packed corner kitchen stand. Jamie Oliver, Rick Stein, and Madour Jaffrey, with their bold and colourful print and pristine covers, stand tall with their perfectly intact spines — for they go almost entirely unused.
Except for one book which lies battered dishevelled and broken in pieces. Delia Smith’s “How to Cook” has been a part of every Bentley family occasion since I can remember, providing its little secrets for practically well cooked food in a beautifully simple prose.
A recipe book for the UX designer
Communicating Design by Dan Brown contains all the same virtues as Delia’s 1970s culinary bible. A practical step by step approach, clear well written language and an almost telepathic understanding for the user and the context that each document/meal is being created in.
At the heart of the book is a simple recipe for creating design documents (deliverables) that may be required during a web project. There are 10 deliverables in total, organized into a hierarchy of themes from initial user research to final design documentation. Brown’s simplicity and clarity of explanation breaks down each deliverable into manageable chunks providing the inexperienced user with the tools and support to execute the document appropriately.
The layered approach is a really good example of this. The layer gives the appropriate emphasis to each chunk of a document
- Layer 1 - the most important elements that make the deliverable what it is
- Layer 2 - elements that are beneficial additions
- Layer 3 - elements that round off document if the required time and resources are available
However it is the books holistic approach, not just dealing with the document in isolation but incorporating the overall impact of each deliverable that will bring me back to this book time and time again. It frames the document as a living, breathing, integrated cog of the overall project, explaining it’s goals, how it contributes to the overall process and how to present each deliverable to the rest of the web team, information that is invaluable to the burgeoning web designer.
Of course as with any recipe book, it’s value is only truly measured when the guests are due and the pages are being speckled by adjacent bubbling sauces. Its been beneficial to read this book to understand how deliverables are constructed and how they fit within the overall web design process but without having individual documents to create I feel I may have missed out on some of the books teachings. I’m looking forward in the very near future to donning my apron, rolling up my sleeves and using Communicating Design extensively as I create my first web design deliverables.
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Categories Book Reviews, Design
5 comments so far
1. Dara Smith on Jan 8th, 2009 - 14:58
Looks like a good book.
I,ve been looking for something like this for a while i might have a browse of this when i,m finished munching the digital designers handbook.
Had a delia smith risotto there the other night. Nice.
2. Carolyn Hack on Jan 12th, 2009 - 18:56
Nice review, Colin! I’ll be interested to hear how this book helps you when you really get “cooking.”
This book is also on the reading list for Project Managers at Viget. (I wrote a post about deliverables when I first started a few months ago: http://www.viget.com/advance/hello-world/ )
I’ve been looking for some more UX / project management / web strategy books to read lately. What else is on the iQ reading list?
3. colinbentley on Jan 14th, 2009 - 11:18
Hi Carolyn.
Thanks for the positive feedback on the blog. Having read the book and now that I’m currently involved in a project with a large diverse organization I can really see the advantages that good documentation can bring.
As a recently joined analyst with iQ, my focus is on the areas of UX and interaction design. To this end by reading list has comprised of Donald Norman’s “The Design of Everyday Things” and Cooper’s “About Face 3“. Next up is “Designing the Obvious” by Robert Hoekman.
On top of this I will ask some of my colleagues who are project management and strategy focused to suggest some further titles in these particular areas . I’ll post these here in the coming days.
4. Bruno on Jan 14th, 2009 - 11:26
Hi,
in fact, this book seems very interesting, Is there any particular area where this book can be more useful?
thanks
5. colinbentley on Jan 14th, 2009 - 17:35
Hi Bruno,
I found the book very useful and practical for all stages of the web design process.
It is divided into 3 sections, user research, strategy and design. For me, the final section on design documentation was most helpful, looking in detail at Site Maps, Flow documents, Wireframes and Final Screen Design. However this might be because on my current project these are the type of documents that are landing on my desk each day.
Hope this helps and thanks for your comment!